Page 50 of The Charade

"Wow." I shook my head slowly. "I know it's probably something I should know by now, but you're, like, really rich, aren't you?"

Carter chuckled, a deep and vibrant sound that made me happy for some reason. "The only money that's mine aside from my trust fund is the small allowance they give me and the money I make tutoring. My dad and Dawn are the ones who are wealthy."

"I'm not rich, my parents are," I mimicked him, resisting the urge to roll my eyes. "That's just something rich kids say, isn't it?"

Carter laughed again. "I don't know. Is that somethingyousay?" He raised an eyebrow. "Your mom’s a famous fashion designer. You can't tell me you're not one of us."

One of us.

"I don't know," I said, looking around at the scenery again and feeling like such an insignificant drop in the pool of the rich and famous. "My mom's money is new. Super new. It's different from people who’ve had decades and decades for their investments to compound into something massive."

"I suppose that's true. Having billions to your name is a lot different than millions."

Billions.

I couldn't even fathom what that much money would look like.

"I'm guessing your dad’s one of those people working with billions then?" I asked since he'd thrown the number out there.

"That's what his financial people tell him, anyway." He narrowed his blue eyes at me, the setting sunlight peeking through the trees making them brighter than usual. "You didn't come up with this scheme to be my fake girlfriend because you heard my dad was the seventh richest guy in the U.S., did you?"

"What?" I choked a little on my own spit and then coughed. "Of course not! I didn't even know your family was that kind of rich until just now when you said it." Sure, when his siblings said they lived on an estate I figured they weren't dirt poor or anything, but yikes, I had no idea they were billionaires. Or the seventh richest family in the United States!

But when he still looked skeptical, I hurried to add, "If I had any ulterior motives for pretending to be with you, it would be because you're hot. Not because of your dad's position on the Forbes list."

He needed to believe me. From my little experience with the rich and famous, I knew they were always on guard for people just trying to use them for some sort of gain. And while Iwasusing Carter to help my math grade, I didn't have plans for anything else.

I watched Carter for his reaction to what I'd just said, but then I realized I'd just told him exactly how attractive I found him.

Again.

I internally kicked myself because I'd been trying so hard not to think about how hot he was.

Carter got a mischievous look on his sexy face and said, "So you really were snooping around my room earlier today with hopes of checking me out, weren't you?" And when he waggled his eyebrows in a suggestive way, I wanted to smack the smug look off his lips.

I settled for shoving his arm instead. "In your dreams."

I must have pushed him harder than I thought because he stumbled to the side with the momentum. And either he had the worst luck or I had the best timing, because just as he was tripping over a rock sitting in the flower bed, the sprinklers turned on.

He ended up catching himself before he could face-plant in the daisies, but by the time he got back up to his feet, the sprinklers had already given him a pretty good shower.

"So now you're trying to see what I look like in a wet T-shirt contest?" Carter asked as he wiped the wet dirt off his hands.

And when I saw the look in his eyes, I knew I needed to run as fast as I could, or I was going to find myself in the wet flower beds and getting way dirtier than him.

"Oh no, you don't, Cohen. You’re not getting out of this," Carter called out as I started sprinting away. And a second later, his footsteps were chasing me down the stone path.

I looked over my shoulder when I'd made it past a curve in the path to see if he was still running after me. He was only about five feet away, thanks to those long legs of his.

Crap! I was in trouble!

I came to a part of the garden where the sprinklers hadn't turned on yet, and since there was a break in the flowers, I darted through the opening with hopes of escape.

I rushed through the trees as fast as I could, looking for a place to hide since I knew I couldn't keep up this pace for long. When I found a big fat tree, I ran to the side that wasn't visible from the path and pressed my back against it so I could catch my breath.

I strained my ears to see if I could make out his location, but my heartbeat pounded too loud in my temples for me to hear anything.

I was just about to peek my head around the corner when Carter suddenly jumped around the other side of the tree and said, "You can run, but you can't hide."

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